If rappers were comic book characters, then Two-Five would be Bizarro. Although the young MC might be protégé to older cousin and G-Unit general/rap mogul 50 Cent, don’t get it twisted. The new kid on the block holds his own on the Who Is Two-Five? mixtape. The similar voice and…
“How I longed to kiss those sweet lips/Those sweet lips, the mouthpiece for a dick,” Amy Annelle muses at the close of the sort-of pop-basic, offhandedly digressive singer-songwriter diary entry we once expected from Liz Phair. The very picture of drollery, she narrates along to the warm, descending-scale plod of…
Forget about Mick ‘n’ Keef, Autechre, Cam’ron, Tortoise, whomever — all gentlemen among many who have shown the world at large a cold-shoulder song or 26. Without so much as a lyric, a guitar, or a defined beat, So Percussion has in “September” the frostiest iceberg in recent memory: an…
Gratuitous religious referents plus a pointedly populist, world-beating hook that could take down the Taj Mahal equals yet another gang of young dudes who wanna be the YouTube generation’s U2 if the kids’ll have ’em and even remember “Mr. Brightside” at this point — even if all of that thick,…
Anything with Eliot Lipp’s name on it seems likely to bubble over with Moogs and disco-pulsing sheen — and that’s not a bad thing. Leo123 and Lipp wear the Dark Party moniker like a slick silvery space suit, moon-raking over Daedelus’s earthy, Latin-based percussion throwdown with chopped vocals and alien,…
Yet another band of floppy-haired, earnest-looking Brooklyn boys, We Are Scientists truly broke out of the Williamsburg scene ghetto this year with their major-label debut, With Love and Squalor. Their sound is far more melodic than most of their native borough’s dark or noisy counterparts, owing to the influence of…
The mass popularity of Continental-cocktail versions of postpunk classics is more cinch than mystery — think about it: smart, sexy, resonant, and familiar. Do potions come any stronger than that? With Bande a Part, the fine-blended followup to the band’s eponymous debut, Nouvelle Vague has concocted a long, tall drink…
“Everybody knows your baby done left you,” says Eric Garcia, lead singer and harp player for Juke, “but we want to do something more.” And thus is Juke. The local group feels the heart of the blues but adds a raw, groove-oriented, swampy indie style. The bandmates feed off one…
Belgium produces some of the most energetic, fun, crazy “world” music (in the sense of traveling the world, not tie-dying it) in the, well, world. But for every day Roger 23 from Front 242 spends dressed in a giant eggshell at the Atomium in Brussels, for every hour the Lords…
The Aquabooty crew rolls out the red carpet this weekend for producer/DJ extraordinaire DJ Spinna, straight from Crooklyn. One of the frontrunners of the late-Nineties indie hip-hop scene, producing tracks for many underground mainstays and as part of crews the Jigmastas and Polyrhythm Addicts, Spinna has grown into a respected…
With her fifth album, Rebelution, Tanya Stephens is making a bid for the title that Bob Marley continues to hold 25 years after his death. Strong lyrics and musical versatility puts Stephens in the front running to become reggae ambassador to the world. Her style leans strongly toward the patois-heavy…
Even though there’s an endless appetite for radio-friendly music, pop-oriented artists as a rule eventually become bored with straightforward pop-music structures — a tradition that’s been carried down from the Beatles to Christina Aguilera. And really, who can blame them? Even though it’s one of the most difficult things to…
There was a time when Latin pop was a fun and inventive proposition, when singers like José Feliciano and Joe Bataan constantly pushed the envelope with music that wasn’t afraid to challenge listeners. Rigo Luna’s debut offers modern hope to those looking for something more than your standard Top 40…
Philadelphia mix pioneer King Britt has been around for a while, starting out running the decks for Grammy winners Digable Planets and more recently producing Macy Gray. His self-categorized “sexy tech” album is certainly sexy and techie enough, bringing to mind a toned-down DJ Dan or more fleshed-out Astral Matrix…
For the shut-ins who populate the “is vinyl dead?” message-board threads, techno/electropop superpower Kompakt celebrates its seventh anniversary with Total 7, and the two-disc comp’s strongest are arguably those that have never seen release. It doesn’t mean the debates are over, though. A Total 7 exclusive launches CD 1 in…
Shaking off divorce number three, Art Alexakis has found himself bankrupt, abandoned by the original members, and on an indie label, all of which presented a splendid opportunity to swim back out past the breakers and watch the world die like the good old days. But that’s been squandered away…
The last time discerning ears turned toward Australia for the Next Big Hip Thing was for the gonzo garage-rock of the now-disbanded Vines. The Presets are the latest hot import from Down Under, but have almost nothing sonically in common with their shambling, spastic predecessors. They may have brought guitars,…
There’s a time to every purpose under Heaven, and 7:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on September 16 is the moment for Miamians to take part in a simultaneous prayer for peace with earthlings in 250 communities throughout 50 countries. Earthdance’s mission is to make music and dance the channel through…
From the halcyon days of Florida’s fin-de-siècle rave scene to the menthol-slathered, glitter-trailing set, AK1200 was the king of drum ‘n’ bass. A decade earlier, the Orlando native had earned his chops in tiny clubs in that city, his techno sets often greeted with confusion or indifference. But as the…
It might well be the apocalypse if Ladytron is finally coming to Miami, and for the band’s first appearance in Florida, no less. The members of Ladytron are spread across Europe, variously calling Liverpool, Glasgow, and Sofia, Bulgaria, home. But in the years since founders Reuben Wu and Daniel Hunt…
Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Gervasio Goris, a.k.a. Herbieman, writes on his MySpace page of how he came to Miami in 2005 on a 42-foot sailboat full of his musical instruments and an eagerness to sing in his bilingual English/Spanish. An adventuresome artist, Goris began pursuing music in 2003, when…
Sattayah-Omari Chang, Lidj Yassu, and Kwame Taijan created the promotions company Sankofa Sound to keep an old-school reggae vibe alive in Miami Beach. “It blossomed in five months,” Chang says. “It really tells me about what people want to hear and what was missing.” Sankofa sticks with roots and conscious…
